Day: May 13, 2022

Again

by

I’m very, very sorry that another season of Westworld is about to unfurl. I won’t be watching, of course, but the mere fact of its existence is enough to bum me out.

Fred Ward, Adieu

by

Respect and salutations for the great Fred Ward, who passed last Sunday (5.8) at 79, but whose death wasn’t announced until today.

Ward’s last performance was as “Eddie Velcoro” in True Detective in 2015, when he was 72. I don’t know why Ward didn’t work over the last few years, but I always loved what he brought.

Ward tried to become a movie star in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (’85), but the public wouldn’t bite. He gave a cagey, flavorful performance as the bald-headed Henry Miller in Phil Kaufman‘s Henry & June (’90), but — be honest — nobody wanted to see Ward generate any sexual energy.

Ward just didn’t have that X-factor movie-star schwing — he was more of a quirky, amiable, laid-back oddball type.

My all-time favorite Ward performance was as the yokelish Earl Bassett, the best friend of Kevin Bacon‘s Val McKee, in Tremors (’90).

My second favorite was Sergeant Hoke Moseley in Miami Blues (which Ward also executive produced).

He was also a memorable Gus Grissom in Kaufman’s The Right Stuff, and I loved his cameo-sized performance in Silkwood (’82 — see below video).

Ward lived in Venice (not Italy) for the most part. I ran into him at Gold’s Gym once when he was training for Remo Williams….”yo!”

Now That “The Northman” Is Streaming

by

…reactions from HE regulars would be appreciated. $20 to rent a UHD version for 48 hours; $25 to buy it outright.

4.21.22 HE review excerpt: “Technically and compositionally first-rate, at times amusingly ultra-violent, The Northman delivers the kind of suffocating, soul-draining ordeal that only a major artist could have provided.

“I loved Eggers’ The Witch and The Lighthouse but I pretty much felt nothing this time around.

“Excessive isn’t the word — startling, repetitious, numbing, eye-filling, confounding and yet all of a single harmonious compositional piece. Obviously the work of a serious artist. Handsome, exquisitely composed and about as bereft of humanity as a film in this vein could possibly be.”

Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do

by

I can order a Region 2 Bluray of the fully restored 124-minute version of Andrej Zulawski’s Possession (‘81), which premiered last fall. I’m not, however, seeing a U.S.-friendly Bluray. (Metrograph offers a streaming option.) Which is my fault, of course. I have mixed feelings about re-watching this creepy, West Berlin-set marital breakup flick, but I won’t wimp out. Isabelle Adjani’s demonic femme fatale performance won a Best Actress trophy at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.